1-4-11

Much colder today, -3 when we got up. Had our oatmeal and ready to start the day. Will do some grocery shopping, and hope to get back to the sewing room soon, like after lunch. I want to start a new permanent album of all the bears I make. Hopefully the ones I do this month will generate more orders. Costs of gas and food are going up, and I'd like to offset that with a little of my time. I will try, this is a resolution, to list on eBay daily, if I can find enough sellable stuff. Right now I have enough for a good month or 2. Just have to put the work into it.
Have one big bag of old clothes to go in the red box, better there than in our garbage. Didn't make a dent in the pile in my sewing room though. I did mend a couple pairs of pants, so thats off my floor. That's another resolution, to find the floor in my sewing "studio". Will be finding plenty of stuff, just need to get it organized and on shelves, in boxes. For now, grocery shopping, yuk.

1-3-11

Third day of the month, and year. Headed downtown to have a cup of coffee and scone at Kathy's "Singing Hills Coffee Shop" that just opened officially today. Delish. Listed one whole item on eBay, find more, list more. Have sewing to do too, and will get at that soon. Want to start on bears so they get done in time for the end of the month, when they are requested. Warmer out today, up to a whole +20. How do you get a little degree circle to print? So off to work at home, done going out for the day, no big meetings until Thursday.

1-2-11

Made it thru the 1st day of '11. Enjoyed time with the neighbors at a little celebration. Did a little fabric play, organized one box of homespuns and decided the couch throw I started a year ago is going to be my first finished project of this year. It won't take much work, the project is ready for quilting, so it will be my first ufo finished for 2011. Church this morning, Vikings game later, and family discussion meantime. A good Sunday spent.

1 1 11

Lotsa 1's this year, with it being 2011. I sure am a bad blogger. Just checked in here and see that I haven't written in almost a year. Well, will I last longer this year? This would be a good place for me to journal, as I'm probably the only one reading it anyway.
We ended the year with dinner out at Gilligan's with 6 friends from the neighborhood. Delicious prime rib, yum. Spendy but good. Champagne was at 9, crowd was thinning, so we got a cup, a hat, a horn, and celebrated. We were home by 10:15. It was fun, and today we celebrate again at the neighbors' house. Hoping this is a good year for all, it could be worse that the last one, but we can only hope. I think it will be a challenging one.
I will be starting in soon on making bears and quilts, have orders and some of my own I want to finish. I will try to archive it here, so someday I will see what really got accomplished in '11. I plan to take pictures of it all so that will be here too. Haven't made any real resolutions but I have a plan list, and it is the best I can do for a person who is impulsive, and has a slightly ocd brain.

Goodbye January~~~~~~~~~

I haven't written anything here since right after Christmas, so I'd better at least post before January is gone. I've been busy but not made much headway in the projects department. I did start selling on Etsy, we'll see how that goes. It's cheaper than eBay, and is all handcrafted stuff, or supplies or vintage items. I like it. I listed some of the potholders I made from cotton sweaters I bought cheap at the thrift shop, got some as a gift and made some. I used the serger to edge some of them. They are soft and cute, and look good hanging in the kitchen. I'm going to have to get at more, as I have about 3 boxes of sweaters. Some of them were too nice to cut up. But I did. I've been going thru old decorating magazines, looking at what I marked to make, some of them months or years ago. I ripped out the pages I'd marked, and I'm saving them in a notebook. I don't even remember them from before, but they were good ideas. This way I can at least get rid of the magazines that take up so much room. It just seems it takes me longer to get projects done than it used to. It may be that I'm older? Here's my potholders:

Just 4 more days, and 2009 is over. I'm up early because Denny is working 3 days this week, with day hours, no kids at school. I'm finding it hard to sleep beyond 4 a.m. Perhaps we should go back to milking cows. That was always an early morning activity. No, guess not. My poor back couldn't take it. I always like to see a new year come, fresh days, new ideas, broken resolutions. We had a busy Christmas with the kids, and will have 2 birthdays this week. Chad will be 43, and Kadygirl will be 10, both on the 30th. She still has the energy of a young dog. If we keep her healthy, she'll be with us for many more years. Today I'm including pictures of a few of the many bookmarks I made for the kids, using fabric and Scrabble letters for their names.


Here are a couple ornaments I made last year out of wooden spools. The pictures aren't too clear, but they give an idea of what I did. I think I gave the boys all Santas, and the girls got snowmen. They all really liked the ones I did this year, with little scenes on them.




Here's our youngest great-granddaughter, Makayla Rose, with her big puffy duck she got for Christmas. She is a cutie, and has such a happy attitude. If babies can have attitudes.


The end of the year always makes me want to clean. I can't do too much at a time with my sore back, but I will start going thru boxes again, and start organizing stuff to keep, stuff to throw, stuff to sell, either on eBay or the city-wide garage sale we always have in May. The garage is still full and my storage room is too. Not to forget,,, all those unfinished quilts and sewing and painting projects. I have potential for a couple shops wanting my products this spring, so I will concentrate on those too, making and using what I have already made, for sale. I already started putting the Christmas decor away, now what? It's too early for spring decor, I'll have to think about it. Maybe continue with some snowmen. We have plenty of snow. Everywhere you look, it's white. Waterville actually was on the news for getting some of the most in the last storm, 21"!! That should bring up the lake levels, though I guess in a foot of snow there's an inch of water. The piles are getting high, and we're running out of places to put it. Time for a second cup of coffee, and wait for the sunrise, which should start coming sooner now that winter has started. Karen/Prairiedog

Another project

I made this blackbird, or crow, yesterday, finished it today with some "wings" made of pine needles, fake, and white berries. It was a new project in a magazine. I love working with wool. I also got to use one of those rusty bed springs out of the boxful I have. This is a birthday gift to one of our daughters-in-law. Very primitive, I may want one myself. Karen-Priairiedog